The bracelet for the 2021 WSOP Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em went to Ryan Hansen. He won after a long heads-up battle (is there any other kind of heads-up battle in limit hold'em?) with Kosei Ichinose.
The target audience for $3,000 limit hold'em events is already thin on the ground. When one factors in that the tourney was also six-handed, interest dropped still further. In the end, only 162 players bought into the event.
Still, the structure and game were both slow enough that 78 of those players saw it through to Day 2.
The fallen on Day 1 included Daniel Negreanu, Frank Kessela, Dan Zack, Ryan Leng, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, and Beverly Hills lawyer Eric Bensamochan who recently and successfully defended Todd Witteles against Mike Postle's lawsuit.
Day 2 saw several more big names exit before the final table could be finalized for Day 3. Among those who didn't make it were Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Eli Elezra, J. J. Liu, Anthony Zinno, Robert Campell, Brian Rast, and defending champ Tu Dao.
Justin Moeller, John Hoang, Steve Chanthabouasy, and Ryan Hansen made the final table. The rest of the final table was brought to you by the letter K — Kosei (Ichinose), Kenny (Hsiung), Ken (Deng), and Kevin (Erickson).
The final hand
Heads-up play came down to Ichinose and Hansen, with Erikson busting in third place for $46,669. With betting levels at 40k-80k and the stacks at 2.8 million (Hansen) to 3.8 million (Ichinose), the final battle began.
Hansen battled up to roughly even, pulling ahead after Ichinose folded the river in a back-and-forth pot.
The final hand, however, saw Ichinose all-in pre-flop with J♠T♠. This was just after a series of hands had knocked him down to just 1 big bet at the current level of 60k-120k.
Hansen turned over K♦️4❤️.
The flop came A♦️6♦️3♠, giving Ichinose very little to work with. The Q♦️ gave him a couple of outs to a straight, neither of which came down on the river, which turned out to be the 9♣. That card gave Hansen the winning hand, the tourney, the bracelet, and $109,692 for first.
Ichinose cashed out for $67,796 and second place.
2021 WSOP Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em complete final table results
Featured image source: PokerGO
